ST. LOUIS -- The coach known as Mad Mike when he directed the high-powered St. Louis Rams has a much lower profile in his new job.

The Detroit Lions did not make Mike Martz, on the comeback trail as an offensive coordinator, available to the media before Sunday's game against the team he led to two Super Bowls. New coach Rod Marinelli downplayed the St. Louis connection.

"Job at hand is what we talked about," Marinelli said. "We have a job to do this week. When you're on the job and on your details, you focus on your job and details."

Regardless, the architect of the "Greatest Show on Turf" is the focal point of the matchup.

Martz was fired in January following a turbulent 6-10 season in which he missed the final 11 games while being treated for a heart ailment. His medical condition did not prevent a feud with the front office from boiling over, although his former players remember the good times.

"I might try to say 'Hi' to him before the game," Rams defensive end Leonard Little said. "He's been good to a lot of people around here."

Wide receiver Dane Looker expects Martz, who was 56-36 with the Rams, to get a nice reception.

"It's a fresh start for him, it's a new era for the Rams," Looker said. "There should be nothing but gratitude. If you look back, the Rams were the most exciting team to watch in the NFL, and he was a big part of that."

Martz's replacement also has only nice things to say. Scott Linehan recalls Martz telephoning congratulations when he was hired in January, and the Rams' new coach acknowledges Martz's influence.

"I know I've admired him for a lot of years," Linehan said. "I certainly have been watching the things he's been doing and trying to emulate a lot of them."

Both the offense Martz is running, and the offense he left behind, are still trying to get on track. The Rams (2-1) have scored only two touchdowns in three games with Linehan calling the plays, leaning instead on a ball-hawking defense that has produced a league-leading plus-10 turnover differential.

The Lions (0-3) totaled 13 points the first two games before stepping it up in a 31-24 loss last week to the Packers.

"You guys know what coach Martz is all about, how demanding he is, tempo and pace, and how he works at it," Marinelli told reporters. "We're grinding these guys pretty good.

"We just expect to get better and better as we go."

The Rams have plenty of insight stored in the memory banks from Martz's six seasons as head coach and a seventh as offensive coordinator during the franchise's lone Super Bowl championship season, 1999. But they're wary of counting on the status quo from Martz, ever the inventor.

"Too much information can be a bad thing because, of course, the guy sitting over there is going to know that you know," Linehan said. "That's the fun part about what we do."

Quarterback Marc Bulger said defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has not tried to pick his brain for information. Nor would he recommend it.

"Every week there was always something new," Bulger said. "There wasn't a week you came in and he said, 'Hey, we're going with our same stuff from last week.'

"I think he didn't want anyone to get complacent. Sometimes it was overwhelming, but that was one thing you knew coming in every week, was that there was going to be a whole new package for everything."

Linehan was hired based on his success as an offensive coordinator in Miami and Minnesota, and he expects weekly improvement as his team becomes more comfortable. Last week, he attempted to accelerate the learning curve by running some plays out of the old playbook.

But he emphasized it wasn't going back to the "old way," noting that a lot of teams have similar plays.

"We're running the 2006 Rams offense and it comes from the 2006 Rams playbook," Linehan said. "There are some things that are similar that would've have been done (in St. Louis), some things that are similar to what we did in Miami, some things similar to what we did in Minnesota, and there might even be a few college plays in there."

Linehan expects gradual improvement with the Rams' attack, which produced no touchdowns in the opener and one each of the last two games. Lions cornerback Dre' Bly, a former Ram, is worried most about power back Steven Jackson - another change from the old, high-flying days.

"He's one of the better backs in the league," Bly said. "If he gets going early, he'll be a load for the whole game.